Tennis Betting Rules: What Happens if my Player Retires? What is a Walkover in Tennis?

Tennis Betting Rules

Tennis is played year-round, which gives bettors ample opportunity to bet on matches, tournaments, and individuals. Tennis can be played either singles (head to head), or doubles (two on two). For the sake of this article, we will be focusing on singles matches and how betting rules apply to those matchups.

All bets placed on head to head matchups are valid until the completion of the match. If the match is delayed due to weather, darkness, or a change in playing time/date, the bet will continue to stay open in your bet slip until the full completion of the match.

If a match, for any reason, starts but does not complete, all bets placed on that matchup will be void and the bettors will receive their stake back.

For all games and sets within the full match, here is an example to show what will and will not count based on when the match ends:

A set is stopped and canceled with the score tied at 3 each; bets on over/under 7.5 games or fewer in the set are settled as winners/losers respectively, since any natural conclusion to the set would have at least 8 games; bets on over/under 8.5 games or more will be void.

If one of the competitors is forced to retire or is disqualified, all bets will be voided. If the specified number of sets are changed, all bets will also be void. Take a look at the table at the end of this article for retirement rules across major sportsbooks.

If a player is forced to withdraw before the match completes, all bets will be voided other than the ones that have already been settled, i.e. individual game or set bets, or specific over/under bets.

Match tie breaks will be counted as a set for the full match. This will be important to take into consideration for set spread bets – if a match were to go into extra sets, those sets would also be applied for the full match set bets.

All future bets placed on tournaments for individual players will have action regardless if the player participates or not. If a player withdraws prior to the start of the tournament, the future bets placed on that individual will be counted.

What Is a Walkover?

A walkover bet is when a player is forced to retire or withdraw from a match before it were to start. In this case, across generally all sports books, all bets would be voided. Take a look at the table below for walkover rules across major sports books.

What Happens If a Player Retires?

If a player retires during a match, then bettors who backed the retiring player will lose their bet. There is an exception to this rule, in that if a competitor retires before the completion of the first set, the bet (in most cases and on most sports books) will be void. Take a look at the table below for player retirement rules across major sports books.

What Happens for A Weather Delay?

In a weather or darkness delay, your bet will still be valid in most cases. In tennis, when there is a weather delay, the match will continue as soon as the weather has cleared up and the officials have deemed the court safe to play on for the competitors.

For darkness, the game will typically resume first thing the next morning. Some sportsbooks have rules where a bet will be voided if the match does not resume after 48 hours or after a week, so make sure to read the fine print to understand how long your bet will be valid for. Take a look at the table below for weather delay rules across major sports books.

Rules By Each Popular Sportsbook

As stated above, let’s take a look at some of the well-known sports books, and how they take into account any special scenarios, and how it will apply for any void bets.